The Lemon Fool

Windfarms in Great Britain break record for clean power generation -

Blustery winter weather helped Great Britain’s windfarms set a record for clean power generation, which made up more than 40% of its electricity on Friday.

Wind turbines generated 17.3GW on Friday afternoon, according to figures from the electricity system operator, narrowly beating the previous record set in early January this year.

High wind speeds across the country helped wind power’s share of the electricity mix remain above 40% through Saturday. Coal and gas plants made up less than a fifth of electricity generated.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/19/windfarms-in-great-britain-break-record-for-clear-power-generation

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Ichnusa Wind Power plans to construct a wind farm, Sardegna Sud Occidentale, comprising 42 x 12MW floating wind turbines some 35 kilometers off the coast of Sardinia in 300-400m water depths

https://www.offshorewind.biz/2020/12/24 ... 2020-12-25

- dspp

"German transmission system operator (TSO) 50Hertz and Danish TSO Energinet have signed a Letter of Intent to collaborate on the Bornholm Energy Island project in the Baltic Sea. The Bornholm Energy Island would connect Germany and Denmark to an offshore hub with around 2,000 MW of wind power capacity that is planned on the island of Bornholm."

https://www.offshorewind.biz/2021/01/21 ... 2021-01-22

- dspp

"GE Renewable Energy is expanding its wind turbine nacelle factory in Montoir-de-Bretagne in France to accommodate the assembly of nacelles for the Haliade-X offshore wind turbines..... for the first of the total 80 Haliade 150-6 MW wind turbines ....The wind turbine supplier has been chosen to deliver its Haliade-X wind turbines for several projects over the past couple of years, including the world’s largest offshore wind farm: Dogger Bank Wind Farm"

https://www.offshorewind.biz/2021/02/02 ... 2021-02-03

and to think this factory could have been in the UK if it were not for Cameron tacking to the Con core and saying, "cut the green crap".

regards, dspp

Though they'd probably have been thinking about moving anyway now, thanks to Brexit!

"Denmark Greenlights North Sea Energy Island Hub

Denmark has reached a landmark agreement on the construction of an energy hub in the North Sea. The energy hub will be an artificially constructed island 80 kilometers from the shore of the peninsula Jutland. Around 200 wind turbines with a combined capacity of 3 GW are expected to be installed in the first phase of the project. When fully developed, the North Sea energy island hub will reach a capacity of 10 GW."

https://www.offshorewind.biz/2021/02/04 ... 2021-02-05

The artists illustrations are beginning to resemble something that might actually get built !

regards, dspp

Kaskasi OWF Site to Host Research on Global Blockage Effect

A new joint industry project has been launched under the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator to improve understanding of the true impact of the Global Blockage Effect (GBE) in offshore wind by undertaking a first of a kind measurement campaign in real offshore conditions.

The campaign will be conducted in the second half of this year at the Heligoland wind farm cluster in the German Bight, between the Nordsee Ost and Amrumbank West wind farms, both wholly-owned by RWE. The test site is in the ‘Kaskasi gap’, in which RWE will build the Kaskasi wind farm, anticipated to go online in 2022.

The Global Blockage Effect in Offshore Wind (OWA GloBE) project aims to reduce the commercial uncertainty around the modelling of the GBE, a phenomenon that occurs as a complex interaction between the wind farm and the atmosphere as the wind flows through, over and around large offshore wind farms.

“The effect is subtle, difficult to measure and hard to extract from legacy campaign data, therefore assumptions incorporated into performance calculations are impacted by existing magnitude and model uncertainties”,

https://www.offshorewind.biz/2021/02/04 ... 2021-02-05

This is about trying to understand how very large scale wind farms will affect very large scale surface winds, however slight the effect may be. We know that large scale forests, cities, farmland, etc all affect this to an extent so in a way this is nothing new.

regards, dspp

Vestas Launches 15 MW Offshore Wind Turbine
With the world’s largest swept area exceeding 43,000 m2, the V236-15.0 MW delivers industry-leading performance and moves the boundaries of wind energy production to around 80 GWh/year, enough to power around 20,000 European households, Vestas said. The launch of the V236-15.0 MW model is part of Vestas’ plan to become the leading wind turbine manufacturer in offshore wind. The plan was launched recently with the full acquisition of the MHI Vestas Offshore Wind joint venture with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
https://www.offshorewind.biz/2021/02/10 ... 2021-02-11

etc, the path to 20MW is being trodden.

regards, dspp

Denmark to build 'first energy island' in North Sea

A project to build a giant island providing enough energy for three million households has been given the green light by Denmark's politicians.

The world's first energy island will be as big as 18 football pitches (120,000sq m), but there are hopes to make it three times that size.

AiY

The global race to produce hydrogen offshore

His firm's project, Dolphyn, aims to fit floating wind turbines with desalination equipment to remove salt from seawater, and electrolysers to split the resulting freshwater into oxygen and the sought-after hydrogen.

AiY

ReallyVeryFoolish wrote:

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:Denmark to build 'first energy island' in North Sea

A project to build a giant island providing enough energy for three million households has been given the green light by Denmark's politicians.

The world's first energy island will be as big as 18 football pitches (120,000sq m), but there are hopes to make it three times that size.

AiY

This is interesting, there's a proposed massive project for an artificial island at Dogger Bank filled with turbines. Joint project with UK, Belgium and Netherlands, IIRC. Will post a link later if I can find one.

RVF

Artificial island is planned on Dogger Bank for cheaper wind power

AiY

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:The global race to produce hydrogen offshore

His firm's project, Dolphyn, aims to fit floating wind turbines with desalination equipment to remove salt from seawater, and electrolysers to split the resulting freshwater into oxygen and the sought-after hydrogen.

So if your average Fool fancied skewing an investment in the direction of wind-powered hydrogen production at this stage, how would he/she best achieve it do you reckon?

Chris

csearle wrote:

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:The global race to produce hydrogen offshore

His firm's project, Dolphyn, aims to fit floating wind turbines with desalination equipment to remove salt from seawater, and electrolysers to split the resulting freshwater into oxygen and the sought-after hydrogen.

So if your average Fool fancied skewing an investment in the direction of wind-powered hydrogen production at this stage, how would he/she best achieve it do you reckon?

Chris

Buy Shell or Exxon, or one of the big Chinese verticals with refiners. If hydrogen is going to make any significant inroads it is likely to do it in clusters based around the major petrochemical complexes of the world. These are essentially controlled by half a dozen megacorps.

regards, dspp

Of course, even wind is not an unalloyed good, if built in the wrong place, and big companies propelled by govt funds can be arrogant and stupid.
Example where Vattenfall are attempting to obliterate some key wildlife forest https://www.change.org/p/scottish-gover ... tm_term=cs

Rather ironic that 'green' energy is being prayed in aid to cut down trees.
If you wanted to sign the relevant petition it would not be a bad thing. It is unhelpful to bring wind into disrepute.

V8

88V8 wrote:Of course, even wind is not an unalloyed good, if built in the wrong place, and big companies propelled by govt funds can be arrogant and stupid.
Example where Vattenfall are attempting to obliterate some key wildlife forest https://www.change.org/p/scottish-gover ... tm_term=cs

Rather ironic that 'green' energy is being prayed in aid to cut down trees.
If you wanted to sign the relevant petition it would not be a bad thing. It is unhelpful to bring wind into disrepute.

V8

There are already a lot of turbines in the area (though they weren't working* at the weekend in windy weather possibly as there was too much power for the grid so they were not required - a good reason for more storage capacity). My main objection to these new turbines is they will be much bigger and lit with red hazard warning lights in what is a good dark skies area.

* I was in the Clashindarroch forest at the weekend skiing and I don't mind the present turbines.

Iberdrola plans first industrial-scale floating offshore wind farm in Spain with an investment of more than €1 billion
Iberdrola is planning what it says will be the first industrial scale floating offshore wind farm in Spain. The 300-MW project will cost more than €1 billion said the company. It will be located off the Spanish coast. The renewable facility could become a driver of the country’s industrialization and job creation, said Iberdrola, estimating that it would provide more than 2800 jobs per year in research, design and engineering before the wind farm becomes operational in 2026.
https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/wi ... 2021-02-24

aka "How, during a period of two decades UK squandered early mover offshore wind advantage, and possession of expansive high-windspeed shallow water areas advantage, and gained no lasting positive industrial economic legacy from it".

- dspp

"China Close to Overtaking UK in Offshore Wind Capacity Rankings
China installed a record 3,060 MW of new offshore wind capacity in 2020, corresponding to over half of the offshore wind capacity added globally last year, according to the latest data released by GWEC Market Intelligence.
Overall, China had 9,898 MW of installed offshore wind capacity at the end of 2020 and was just 308 MW shy of taking the top spot from the UK which had 10,206 MW of installed offshore wind capacity at the end of last year.
This was the third year in a row that China led the world in new annual offshore wind capacity, GWEC said.
The Netherlands Leads the Way in Europe. Overall, over 6 GW of new offshore wind capacity was added globally in 2020, according to GWEC."

- etc

https://www.offshorewind.biz/2021/02/25 ... 2021-02-26

- dspp

ReallyVeryFoolish wrote:Of course in China, they have a huge advantage in doing stuff like this because whatever the CCP decides simply tends to get done. ...

They also have a huge disadvantage because whatever the CCP decides simply tends to get done! China's large expansion in offshore wind is good news, their large expansion in coal-fired power stations not so good...

Gengulphus

ReallyVeryFoolish wrote:...things like Heathrow third runway and the like which are talked about endlessly for decades until they just don't happen.

Hooray.
And may it long continue not to be.

V8

US to build 800MW of offshore wind power, featuring 84 of the prototype GE Haliade X units https://www.ge.com/renewableenergy/wind ... re-turbine

The approval follows steps taken this year by the Biden administration to ramp up offshore wind projects in the US, which ultimately work towards the target of deploying 30 GW of offshore wind power by 2030. This would generate enough power for more than 10,000,000 American homes, and negate 78 million metric tons of CO2 emissions.

I wonder if that's homes with or without their aircon. The field is off Mass, where it's either freezing or muggy, so I guess with.

Anyway, another upstep in the size of turbines. They stand 853ft high and will be spaced one nautical mile apart.
https://en.wind-turbine-models.com/turb ... de-x-12-mw
They have a tip speed of 170 mph. I hope the local birdlife has good radar.
https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/biden ... -us-waters

V8